


rulebreaker

by wolframvonbielefeld (maknaeline)



Series: cloud's giftfics [11]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Genre: Canon Divergence, Crossover, Eventual Smut, Fluff, M/M, No knowledge of daemons required, The Grandmaster of Daemonic Cultivation, daemon!AU - Freeform, i guess, not really alternate universe, ratings will go up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-27
Packaged: 2019-08-29 21:39:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16751950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maknaeline/pseuds/wolframvonbielefeld
Summary: All the times Wei Wuxian (and his Daemon) skirts around a rule in the Cloud Recesses, and the one time he breaks it.





	1. rule one: restrain your voice within the Cloud Recesses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blueevileye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueevileye/gifts).



> this rose out of the fierce corpses server talking about daemons, and then Gaby was like - you HAVE to write this
> 
> and obviously, it took me months to flesh it out bc it got out of hand. like it does. It always does.

Light spills in through the window of the Library Pavilion, but when Wei Wuxian looks up, he hones in directly on eyes like jewels, watching him work.

Not Lan Wangji, for once. Wei Wuxian knows he looks at him often, but this time it is Biyu, Lan Wangji’s daemon, who slinks around Wei Wuxian, eyeing his work with all the attention of a displeased Lan Qiren. He would laugh - the size difference is too adorable, but he’s incredulous at how many restraints they have decided to put on him. Biyu barely paid attention to him last night, when he had decided to smuggle in wine, or even in class when he was openly blasphemous - he doubts Who had fought him either, so why now?

“You’re keeping an eye on me too, now?” he demands, and the daemon rolls a pair of beautiful, dignified eyes, so like Lan Wangji’s own - if a daemon can roll their eyes.

Can a cat roll eyes?

“We do not need to roll eyes to express distaste,” Biyu tells Wei Wuxian, as if looking right into his thoughts, and he pouts.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” he says. Wei Wuxian looks towards Lan Wangji this time, his solemn profile like a piece of precious carved jade, so serenely does he sit at work. “Hey, Lan Zhan, why does your daemon speak more than you do?”

“Unnecessary,” Lan Zhan says shortly, as he does, and Biyu moves away majestically. It doesn’t stop looking, however, and Wei Wuxian sighs loudly. What a fate - to be constantly supervised by both the stuffy Second Master Lan and his daemon, night and day! He would rather die.

“Dramatic,” Who tells him, slinking and shifting between the shadows behind the door, longingly looking outside like he wants to. “So dramatic! But you know that already.”

“But I know that already,” Wei Wuxian agrees, smile bright. “Now shush, I don’t trust Lan Zhan to not cast the Silencing spell on you too.”

That, of all things, pulls a delightful reaction from Lan Wangji. His ears go cinnabar-red, as if all the blood was pulled from his pale moonlight face.

“Copying,” he says, and makes a warning gesture. Wei Wuxian hurriedly picks his brush back up, and ignores the way Biyu’s constant gaze makes him want to hide his face somewhere.

Seriously, _what_ is it with that uncanny cat form? And why won’t he look away?

He thinks about it all the way until just before lunchtime, when he finally gets a chance to get away from the prying golden eyes of the daemon, only combined with his human’s when Wei Wuxian realizes that Lan Wangji is only reading as an excuse to keep an eye on him, much to his disbelief.

(Does he really think he doesn’t spot Lan Wangji’s heated, strange gaze that falls away to his book every time he tries to meet his eyes?)

“It’s a mountain leopard cub, obviously - you just haven’t seen them before,” Jiang Cheng says. His own daemon is warily pacing the outskirts of the wall, at a decent distance which won’t make Wei Wuxian’s breath erratic every time he sees her. He has learned to get used to Princess over the years, but he still stiffens up every time she sneaks up on him. “And you know the rumours, right? You should stay away from him.”

“What rumours?” Wei Wuxian says, endlessly clueless. He rather likes, Biyu, really, so he sees no reason to stay away, rumours or otherwise, anyway. He knows Who does too, because Who had attempted to sneak away with the ink drawing he had made earlier of Lan Wangji and Biyu, side by side, majestic in their snowy coats. Biyu is still a cub; Wei Wuxian wonders how pretty it will be when Lan Wangji grows up.

How beautiful Lan Wangji will be when he grows up! His radiance will exceed that of the whole Cloud Recesses tenfold. He will be so obnoxious that even Biyu’s aloof demeanour will not be able to hold the ladies off, even his cold aura will be useless in front of their ardour. What luck, then, that he has a friend like Wei Wuxian, who will be decent on his behalf! Yes, it is imperative that he stay friends with Lan Wangji. “Never mind, don’t tell me. It’s probably something stupid and unfounded. What exactly could be so bad about Lan Wangji?”

Jiang Cheng squints at him, a furrow appearing between his brows. “Sometimes you talk about him like you’ve known him all your life, and it concerns me.” He turns his frown towards the outer walls of their classroom. “It’s nothing big - everyone knows, really. Biyu’s a male daemon.”

“So?” Wei Wuxian doesn’t really get it. “Who doesn’t even have a form, yet! A lot change forms throughout their lives, right?” He doesn’t know that much about daemon research, his mother having been a rogue cultivator, so he feels like he’s missing something important here. “It sounds like discrimination. So what if he’s unique?”

“I should have known that would never dissuade you,” Jiang Cheng says, sighing. “People will talk, though.”

“They always talk! I talk most of all, so I can out-talk them,” Wei Wuxian replies. Who comes to his side, this time in the form of a monkey, as if to imitate him, and Wei Wuxian bursts into laughter. “See, Who agrees!”

“Only if people listen,” Jiang Cheng grouches, but the look on Lan Wangji’s face when Wei Wuxian walks in with a chattering monkey into the dining hall is worth it.

“Daemons are allowed to be loud in the Cloud Recesses, right?” he says to him in an undertone, smile bright. “There’s no rule against _that_.”

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Who run after Biyu, who meows indignantly before disappearing into the hedges nearby. Ah well, it’s not like they can go further, but Wei Wuxian feels strangely sorry, watching them interact, watching Biyu - a predator - claw harmlessly at a confused Who in a playfight that neither seem to be winning.

 _Isn’t it strange, Lan Zhan,_ he wants to say, _that our daemons get along better than us?_

He wishes he could ask Lan Wangji, or even read the expressions on his face, but that cold visage either trained on Wei Wuxian’s own face until he’s forced to look down or completely ignoring him, gives him no answers. He eats without appetite, bland food seeming inedible, and wonders if this is what those depictions of lovesickness meant, only worse. It intensifies when he finishes his food and Lan Wangji decides to walk out, without so much as acknowledging his greeting or his smile.

 _This sort of rejection is bad enough_ , he thinks resentfully, _who needs love?!_

Then soft - he has to strain to hear it, as if something meant only for his ears, as Lan Wangji passes him by.

“It’s not.”

Wei Wuxian’s eyes go wide, and he turns around, ready to cry out, but Lan Wangji makes his exit swifter than the rain-bearing winds over starved fields. Wei Wuxian isn’t even ashamed to say that he feels like he’s blooming, smile widening at the words.

“I’ll remember that!” he says loudly, and gets immediately reprimanded by Lan Qiren for talking out loud.

“He’ll remember that!” Who echoes, and Lan Qiren groans, and sits back down.

Oh, this is amazing ammunition. Lan Wangji has no idea about the monster he has created.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [This is Biyu.](https://i.imgur.com/OzKz2mr.jpg) His name has the character for jade in it (for twin jades of Lan!).
> 
> Who doesn't have a form (yet). Because well...Who lives up to his name :D


	2. rule two: one must not tell lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lan Wangji is in turmoil, and he has no idea that this is only the beginning.

Lan Wangji has recently noticed himself becoming short of breath every time Wei Wuxian passes him in the halls.

He comes up with several theories as to why, and all of them point to one end that makes him uneasy. Makes him sit down and revise every rule he has learned, the framework of his very life, before a fairy in black comes in to burn it all to cinders every night.

Nights - nights are a problem.

Nights are a problem in itself - when Wei Wuxian steals away from the Cloud Recesses and inevitably returns with wine in his hand. Sometimes it’s discarded before Lan Wangji even has the time to get his hands on it or see him drink it. Sometimes it’s face to face, and Wei Wuxian is forced to run farther, chased out of the compound, and come morning Lan Wangji is met with a glare from bleary eyes, still so terribly pretty and vivacious behind their long lashes, Who turning into a small animal and darting inside his cloak.

Nights are sleepless otherwise - because as soon as he falls asleep he hears the tinkling of a bell, bare feet on the hallways, and the sweet laughter of Wei Wuxian stealing into his room and capturing his lips in a kiss, their hands wandering. Wei Wuxian never needs to be told what to do then, all charm and obedience and sweet gasps before Lan Wangji inevitably wrenches himself away from the dream, aroused and afraid.

His brother’s well-meaning scrutiny is not as much a problem as it is a longstanding issue that Lan Xichen has always had with his inability to make friends among people his own age. Lan Wangji has never seen the need. Before -

Before, there was Mother, and memories of what would happen to him if he overstepped his boundaries. Before, there was Lan Qiren, his uncle teaching him everything there was to teach and him soaking it in like a new sprout in good soil. Before, there was an absent father, who still barely acknowledges Lan Wangji’s presence. Sometimes Lan Wangji wonders who the ghost is - the smell of his mother’s perfume that still, miraculously pervades the old cottage, his own father, constantly in the background but never bothering to show himself throughout his formative years, or Lan Wangji himself. He attempts to speak to the disciples, in this Before, and fails to connect. One of them runs away, as terrified of him as they would be expected to be of Lan Qiren.

He wonders if he could disappear and the disciples would merely wonder if he went into closed-door cultivation, if the clan would just cover it up, if Biyu would notice. He barely notices when he solidifies into something permanent, weeks passing before he acknowledges his daemon’s majestic, if still young new form.

Then, after - he meets Wei Wuxian.

After - Wei Wuxian doesn’t duck out of his sight, doesn’t take the roundabout route to avoid his eyes on the way to morning classes. Wei Wuxian sits in the next row while Lan Qiren teaches and stares in his direction, one hand on his chin, the other absently playing with his quill, or curled around his daemon, who - Who. A contradiction in itself. Biyu purrs whenever he sees it, and then glares, resentful, at Lan Wangji, as if he should have the answers. It is strange, seeing that Wei Wuxian has all the wrong answers to all the right questions.

Wei Wuxian has _answers_.

Lan Wangji has never hoped for answers before.

He doesn’t need to speak. Wei Wuxian answers for him. So many of them are wrong, misconstrued, but he cannot bring himself to care. Not when he feels like a hypocrite - he says one thing, but his heart another. Biyu’s disapproval only grows, and he doesn’t like it. It’s one thing to have conflict with yourself, and another for it to show so clearly, to the point that your brother requests that he resolve matters with his daemon.

Neither Biyu nor Lan Wangji are good at speaking about what they want. _That would be much easier,_ he thinks.

“Second Master Lan, Second Brother Lan, please look at me,” Wei Wuxian says, pleading, and Lan Wangji’s face burns, turning away from the display. He is only too glad that Biyu was not addressed directly in public in such a shameless manner. He wonders if Wei Wuxian was ever taught about daemons, and the proper manner to address them. Whatever Lan Qiren tries to instill in him seems to have no effect, as if he is a leaky cauldron, however; so it could easily be not the fault of the teacher, but the shortcomings of the student.

Wei Wuxian, he decides, is too perfect. It is a good thing he has shortcomings, or Lan Wangji would be compromised -

And then the Waterborne Abyss starts to attack them, and all his thoughts are focused on how to defend against it. The safety of the Lan disciples is primary, so it is what he focuses on first, unwilling to check on the two Jiang disciples. Surely their cultivation is superior enough that they can take care of themselves, he thinks. He hopes. Disdainful though his uncle might be, he has hopes - hopes he will never express.

Everything goes well until Wei Wuxian falls into the lake.

There is a moment of stark terror - Jiang Cheng’s hand stretching out uselessly into the lake, with Princess yapping nervously at his heels, racing downwards before the Abyss attempted to grab it as well. Wei Wuxian’s daemon has disappeared along with him, and his brother pauses, clearly torn.

Lan Wangji will remember this, later - as the one time he did not hesitate.

It was seconds, he thinks - seconds within Wei Wuxian vanishing into the lake that he finally broke through the surface, reaching out into the deep. One talisman that would last perhaps a minute, not more, to keep him safe before it burned up due to all the resentful energy that collected in the Abyss. The souls of daemons and their humans that twisted and separated here call to him and prowl behind Biyu, and they both ignore it regally.

He hears Wei Wuxian’s voice in the narrow swirling waters before he sees him, eyes barely open. He screams, and no one answers, reaches out, and no one clasps back. It is the scape of a nightmare he never wants to have again.

When he pulls Wei Wuxian out he does not meet his eyes. Avoiding physical contact with outsiders is an easy excuse, a cheap one. His brother’s stare burns into the back of his head, and Biyu sidles up and nuzzles Who, looking at him accusingly.

He has to stay away. For himself - for the clan, for his own sanity, and for Wei Wuxian’s sake. Away from inquisitive pretty eyes and bell-like voice that declares them to already be _more than outsiders,_ to the amusement and horror of all the disciples present - isn’t it lucky, Lan Wangji thinks with great resentment, that nothing Wei Wuxian ever says is taken seriously? Isn’t it lucky, or how scandalous would it be?

How scandalous would be Wei Wuxian parsing a loquat past his lips and tossing one to Biyu, who catches it in his mouth, while he opened them to reprimand him, winking at his horror as he walked away? How strange would it be - the way his fingers had lingered, patting his mouth softly, wiping away excess juices, even as Lan Wangji refused to maintain eye contact? Even Lan Xichen had finally looked away when they had lunch, the rest of the Lan disciples scattering even as they sat with their dessert still, and Wei Wuxian put away the last of the loquats into his pouch.

“Lan Zhan, eating a loquat won’t make you lustful just because it came from someone beautiful,” Wei Wuxian says, the smile on his face knowing, as he seats himself next to him at his desk again in the Library Pavilion. “Besides, even if those pretty ladies don’t count, could you imagine _me_ stealing _your_ virtue, oh esteemed Second Brother?”

Lan Wangji is pretty sure Wei Wuxian is making fun of him, except he can, actually. He changes the subject. “Why did you lie to Jiang Cheng?”

Wei Wuxian stiffens. “I didn’t,” he protests. “Why would I lie about myself?”

“Not just you - Who is suffering too,” Lan Wangji says. “I felt the displacement in your aura when you attempted to manipulate the resentful energy in the lake.”

There is a long, profound silence.

“Lan Zhan, are you planning on telling Lan Qiren?” Wei Wuxian whispers.

Lan Wangji doesn’t meet his eyes. “I wasn’t going to curse you for something you couldn’t control,” he mumbles.

The silence that continues on after that is unbearable even for Lan Wangji. He looks up, hesitant, and meets Wei Wuxian’s eyes bright with amusement.

“I wasn’t actually manipulating it - the energy was taking over me,” he says slowly. “But Lan Zhan - your consideration for a friend - what a good husband you’ll make, if you can keep your wife’s secrets like this!”

“What does this have to do with marriage?!” Lan Wangji retorts, embarrassed beyond belief. Biyu skulks out behind him, and he is the next victim.

“I’m only speaking the truth! Biyu, am I not right?”

“You are right,” Biyu agrees sedately. “We are simply not used to lying.”

“Lan Zhan - your face!” Wei Wuxian bursts into laughter as Lan Wangji assumes a horrified expression at Biyu actually replying again. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell either!” He winks. “Besides, white lies can sometimes be good, don’t you think? Like today.”

Lan Wangji thinks about that while he works all day after they head back to the Cloud Recesses, determined to ignore the implications in that statement and to ignore the mess that Wei Wuxian has left on the desk after finishing his texts for today. Lan Wangji has neither the heart nor desire to clean up his space.

He wouldn’t mind it if Wei Wuxian kept his desk like this forever. Not spotless, just enough to make him remember two people shared this space.

Maybe his uncle would have to bother Jiang Fengmian with a marriage proposal for his eldest disciple, then, he idly thinks.

He then does handstands for fifty minutes in the sheer horror he feels at the concept, which is how Lan Xichen finds him.

The fact that his brother does not even raise an eyebrow is damning in itself. Lan Wangji decides to ignore that too.

***

A sunny, bright day dawns at the Cloud Recesses. From all the way down the hill, the cries of the disciples, and cheerful laughter of the one voice imprinted into his brain are quite audible, so that Lan Wangji’s heart leaps every time he hears it. It is one of their rare free days, and the disciples are enjoying it to their heart’s content.

He wishes, for a wild second, that he could join in - if only to watch Wei Wuxian pad in, barefoot, to catch and throw crabs and little frogs from and into the water.

“Wangji,” his esteemed uncle says, as he pours him his tea. “How is the unruly boy’s work coming along?”

“Not very well, uncle,” Lan Wangji says, guilt overtaking him. “He must train harder - let him finish the month with me.” He has to do fifty more handstands after this, or his conscience will never rest. “Starting tomorrow, perhaps?”

Wei Wuxian’s face is barely short of a pout when he is called in to archive something in the library during his short-lived hours of freedom, but it all dissolves when he discovers that his new assignments are to _read_ new books and scrolls, and spends all afternoon attempting to make Lan Wangji pay more attention to him. All the while Lan Wangji does the exact opposite, with Biyu playing with Who on the other side of the door.

(He wonders when Wei Wuxian will notice, and ask.)

White lies can be a little worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The deal with their daemons will be revealed...Eventually. The timeline looks a bit wonky right now but I have it figured out, promise!
> 
> So what IS the deal with Biyu and why is Lan Wangji so thirsty? Find out...in the next episode of Grandmaster of Daemonic Cultivation.


End file.
